Electric semi truck brand Windrose has developed an all-electric power take-off (PTO) that puts out up to 70 kW of power without burning a drop of diesel – and it could give his big BEV a real market advantage.
Antwerp-based Windrose has been called everything from a Tesla Semi knock-off to a marketing stunt, but nearly everyone who’s actually put the big R700 electric semi to the test has walked away seriously impressed with the truck – especially after one hauled a 75,000 lb. combined load more than 578 miles between Colton, California and Buckeye, Arizona across the critical I-10 freight corridor that runs coast-to-coast from California to Florida.
Now, the company is offering that same level of electric capability to vehicle transport fleets, which use specialized trailers (below) that have a lot of power needs.
“We believe that EV (and all other) cars should be moved by an electric truck. However, we couldn’t find the right available EPTO (electric power take-off) solution to power the ramp and rack, so we decided to build our own,” explains Wen Han, founder and CEO of Windrose. “It’s the size of an iPad and directly integrated into our own designed e-axle. With zero emissions, it provides 70kW of power, based on our 800V high voltage platform.”
What’s a PTO?
For the uninitiated, a power take-off, or PTO, is essentially a mechanical power outlet that sends energy to an external piece of equipment, whether that’s a dump body, cherry picker, plow – or something else. On a conventional diesel truck, the PTO typically taps into the transmission or engine and uses the running engine to provide that mechanical power. On an electric truck, however, there is no combustion engine idling away to provide that mechanical power, so the truck has to pull energy from its battery and convert it into mechanical power for the equipment. In practice, that means adding an electric motor and power electronics to drive the pump or other accessory.
That’s not an issue for companies like Mack or Volvo, whose VNR Electric semi mates an electric drive motor to its existing I-Shift automated transmission, but when your truck uses independent electric motors without a transmission, like Tesla’s Semi, it can be a challenge to figure out how to deliver the power that’s needed in a way that’s compatible with the enormous existing ecosystem of trailers, hydraulic pumps, cherry pickers, cranes, plows, and other accessories that were designed around conventional mechanical PTOs.
Windrose has found another solution, by integrating the EPTO into compact module that’s baked into the company’s proprietary e-axle. It’s a clever solution that has a lot of people in the industry talking.
“An EPTO has the potential to turn [an electric] highway truck into a Swiss-Army-Knife of application possibilities, especially here in Canada,” explained Ken North, an emerging technologies consultant for the North American Council for Freight Efficiency (NACFE). “Nice work on this, Windrose!”
SOURCE | IMAGES: Wen Han, via LinkedIn.
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